Professional Learning Activity

The resources below should help you understand more about the structure and purpose of the Armed Forces in a modern world. It will tell you about the locations and size of the three services which make up the UK Armed Forces: Royal Navy, RAF and the Army. It will also give you some indication of the values and standards of the Armed Forces. Understanding the values and standards of the AF is important as it will help you to be aware of the culture and nature of the Armed Forces. This shapes the lifestyle that AF families lead and thus shapes the child and their primary care givers.

Links:
Learn more about the structure of the Army:

Learn more about the British Army’s purpose and priorities: What We Do | The British Army (mod.uk)

Learn more about the RAF: https://www.raf.mod.uk/our-organisation/overview/

Learn more about the different careers in the Navy:
https://www.royalnavy.mod.uk/madeintheroyalnavy?gclid=EAIaIQobChMIpomm_eSE-QIVibHtCh338A6CEAAYASAAEgKqP_D_BwE&gclsrc=aw.ds

Learn more about recent Army activity oversees:

• The Pecking Order – the following PDF is a useful took to refer. It will help understanding the rank structure of the Army, Navy and RAF.
  https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/28119/20101014145X_Pecking_Order_CompU.pdf
• The purpose of the MOD: The following link will take you to the UK Government website which tells you about the Ministry of Defence. It outlines the current purpose, responsibilities and priorities of the Army, Navy, RAF and supporting organisations. https://www.gov.uk/government/organisations/ministry-of-defence/about
• Read up on Defence personnel stastics with this short government publication: https://researchbriefings.files.parliament.uk/documents/CBP-7930/CBP-7930.pdf
• Learn more about the MOD’s Future Accommodation Model: What you need to know about the Future Accommodation Model – GOV.UK (www.gov.uk)
• Learn more about the MOD’s new Flexible Engagement terms of service: Flexible Service in the armed forces – GOV.UK (www.gov.uk)
• For people working in strategic roles it might be helpful to understand the Army’s Future Soldier plans: 20210322-army-future_soldier-publication-final.pdf (mod.uk)

If you are in a Welfare or Supporting organisation you might be interested to read the following MOD polices which are available online:

• JSP 100 (Transition)
• JSP 534 (Resettlement)
• JSP 770 (Welfare)
• JSP 835/834 (Safeguarding of children and young people)
• JSP 342 (Education of service children and young people)
• JSP 764 (Armed Forces Compensation Scheme/War Pension scheme)

The following websites and newsletters are a good place to learn more about the three services and stay up to date with current changes:

• Army: https://www.army.mod.uk/news-and-events/in-front-newsletter/
• RAF: https://www.raf.mod.uk/news/articles/
• Navy: https://www.royalnavy.mod.uk/news-and-latest-activity/navy-news

If you would like to learn more about Veterans in Scotland and the organisations that support them the Veterans Scotland website is a good place to start. They have a handy Information Booklet which details all the organisations in Scotland that can provide support for Veterans and their families: Resources and Assistance | Veterans Scotland

In this section we will signpost you to learn more about veterans from the UK Armed Forces and their families. We will encourage you to a historical look at the different deployments that the UK Armed Forces have participated in since WW2 to the present day. We will also look at how MOD policy has evolved over time. Discuss the impact that this had on the people who served during the different eras and their families.

After looking at Veterans we will then encourage you to look at the families of people who have served. We refer these people as non-serving members of the military community. Although they are not employees of the MOD they play an import role in support the person that is an employee. Those that live in Service Families Accommodation are very much embedded in the Forces lifestyle. We will take a look at the variety of ways in which service life also touches on family members.

Links for this section to follow.

To enable you to fully support the service child it is important to learn about the Rights of the Child. You might have already learnt a lot about the UNCRC through your professional development. If you are learning about the UNCRC for the first time we suggest the following websites are a good place to start:

The following website has a useful summary document which outlines the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child: https://www.unicef.org.uk/what-we-do/un-convention-child-rights/

The Scottish Government has created the following training resource: https://www.gov.scot/publications/un-convention-on-the-rights-of-the-child-training-tool/

The Armed Forces Covenant is a promise by the nation ensuring that those who serve or who have served in the armed forces, and their families, are treated fairly. The Covenant is now enshrined in law through the Armed Forces Bill, The Armed Forces Act, which gained Royal Assent in Parliament on Dec 2021, enshrines the Armed Forces Covenant in law for the first time to help prevent service personnel and veterans being disadvantaged when accessing essential services like healthcare, education and housing.

Links:

• A useful introductory video watch is this one from Lt.Gen James Swift Chief of Defence (People).
  https://covenantfund.org.uk/wp-content/uploads/articulate_uploads/the-armed-forces-covenant-induction-2-1/index.html#/id/627a729b9207271f91c6bb2f
• To help professionals learn more we also suggest watching the video on the AF Covenant website: https://www.armedforcescovenant.gov.uk/about/

As most children with AF parents will have moved in and out of the education system across the UK it is helpful to understand the key differences between the different education systems across the four countries in the UK.

• If you are not familiar with the Scottish Education system this it might be helpful to visit the following website: https://education.gov.scot/education-scotland/scottish-education-system/#
• The following video from the University of Edinburgh offers a helpful explanation of the Scottish Education system: https://media.ed.ac.uk/media/Part+1+The+Scottish+Educational+System+in+a+Nutshell/1_6a68155c
• The following article from the Institute for Government discusses some of the differences between the different education systems across the UK: https://www.instituteforgovernment.org.uk/publication/devolved-public-services/schools

The potential impact on children is summarised by Dr Cunningham, Educational Psychologist:

‘Children with parents in the Armed Forces face challenges that may go beyond the experience of the majority of families and children living in the UK. The families of Service personnel are often highly mobile and can experience long periods of separation which can lead to increased levels of stress and anxiety. Service families must continually adapt to the presence and absence of a serving parent, reorganising and readjusting to changing roles and routines. Education and social networks may be disrupted and the parent left at home often has to operate as a single parent.’
Dr Larissa Cunningham, Educational psychologist, 2019, Living in My Shoes Report, p47

If you would like to find out more about the potential impacts of Service life on children and young people the following websites and publications are a good place to start:

• Living in Our Shoes, Understanding the need of the UK Armed Forces families, June 2020.
• NHS Education Scotland has a Trauma Informed training resource on their learning platform Turas. Anyone can create an account and access this learning for free: https://learn.nes.nhs.scot/37898
• The Centre for Social Justice has also produced a report discussing the impacts on children and young people: https://www.centreforsocialjustice.org.uk/wp-content/uploads/2016/05/MILITARY-FAMILIES.pdf
• The following is an article from the USA but there is still a lot that is still applicable to the UK: https://capmh.biomedcentral.com/articles/10.1186/s13034-019-0287-y

In addition to this we recommend the following video record by Dr Karen Treisman for the Your Mind Matters project

Professional educators might wish to use the Thriving Lives toolkit to assess their schools support for children with AF parents.

https://www.scipalliance.org/assets/files/SCiP-Alliance-Thriving-Lives-Toolkit-FINAL.pdf